Hollywood Uses Influence to Push Obamacare, Denies It Has Influence on Violent Culture

Well if a celebrity is for
it, then it must be a good idea. The Obama administration launched a new social
media campaign last week using controversial celebrities as spokespeople for
the Affordable Care Act. Counting the celebrities’ Twitter followers alone, that
gives the administration access to more than 67 million people to push the president’s
mandatory healthcare program.

Singer
Lady Gaga, comedians Sarah Silverman and John Hodgman, “Revenge” actors
Nick Wechsler and Emily VanCamp, and “Parks and Rec” star Amy Poehler, are just
a few celebrities who tweeted out or Instagrammed pictures of themselves
holding signs with the hashtag “#GetCovered” as part of Obama’s social media
campaign to get young people to sign up for his healthcare plan.

Once again, Hollywood celebrities were eager
to use the power of Tinseltown to push a liberal message, without ever acknowledging
that same power is used to promote violence. In early 2013,
the top five movies at the box office included 65 scenes of violence,
with 185 individual victims. Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” was a huge
part of that total. But when Tarantino, who often relies on over-the top
violence, was questioned about that, he said it was “totally disrespectful to
[the Sandy Hook victims’] memory. Obviously, the issue is gun control and
mental health.”

Get Covered was only the
latest of a series of celebrity oriented initiatives. Hollywood A-listers from
actor George Clooney to rapper Jay Z have raised millions for the president’s
election. A wide variety of mostly entertainment media outlets have promoted
Michelle Obama’s food crusades. In the first four years of her husband’s
presidency, the First Lady appeared on everything from Disney’s “iCarly” to
working out with “The Biggest Loser” at least 44
times.

As part of the new
“#GetCovered” campaign, Vampire Diaries star Nina Dobrev even
posed topless with the hashtag sign covering her. On October 1, singer John
Legend tweeted,
“F the shutdown. The Health Insurance Marketplace is now open in every state.
Don’t wait another day to #GetCovered!”

This is somewhat of a repeat
performance of last year’s publicity stunt where liberal starlets took to
Twitter with pictures of themselves with pithy political messages promoting
“women’s rights,” (which apparently meant government-funded abortions and
contraception.)

Along with celebrities,
abortion providers like Planned Parenthood, Will Ferrell’s “Funny or Die”
channel and MTV’s “Rock the Vote” also tweeted out the hashtag. Funny or Die
even made
a video showing all the different types of people who would benefit from
Obamacare, that plays like a government propaganda film.

Having MTV, teen mags and
young celebrities on Twitter promote a largely unpopular healthcare bill is a
smart marketing strategy since young adults tend to get their information
through social media and entertainment

However, healthy young people
are the group who will be hurt the most by signing up for Obamacare. According
to Reuters, “The administration aims to sign up at least 2.7 million young,
healthy Americans in Obamacare's insurance plans in their first year to offset
the costs of sicker beneficiaries.”

As of October 4, 2013

Twitter followers

Lady Gaga: 40,233,493, more
than 10,000 retweets for one tweet

Pharrell Williams: 2,328,117

Olivia Wilde: 1,130,097

Nick Wechsler: 37,958

Mia Farrow: 267,071

Martha Plimpton: 145,611

Lance Bass: 363,132

Russell Simmons: 2,926,318

Chris Noth: 16,896

Amy Poehler: 28,104

Kerry Washington: 1,134,614

Alyssa Milano: 2,579,582

Sarah Silverman: 4,718,496

John
Legend: 4,848,354

Nina Dobrev: 4,027, 021

Pearl Jam: 2,219,022

Nsync: 229,661

John Hodgman: 927,020

Justin Long: 106,984

Dule Hill: 208,309

Taye Diggs: 232,851

Nikki Reed: 674,060

Jessica Szohr: 175,937

Emmanuelle Chriqui: 127,822

Scott Foley: 74,140

Bryan Greenberg: 177,089

Marlon Wayans: 1,463,682

Total is: 67,374,420

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